As promised, Amazon has begun rolling out a new update for Kindle Fire owners, but there are some things you should know before you dive in. If you're a modder, be aware that the Kindle Fire 6.2.1 update removes root privileges on tablets that have already been rooted, and once it does that, you're unable to re-root it using the SuperOneClick utility with the new firmware installed.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is urging the U.S. Copyright Office to renew and expand exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that were granted last year in response to EFF's requests to protect certain modding rights. Specifically, EFF played a critical role in making it legal to "jailbreak" smartphones, and the organization wants the DMCA to grant the same freedom for electronic tablets and videogame consoles.

We're on a roll this week! As work wraps up on the November issue (yes, already; mag deadlines are a bear!), we're finding time for the finer things in life, like Episode 177 of the No BS Podcast. And this: a new installment of Forum Feature!

George "Geohot" Hotz received a mountain of criticism for backing down on his scuffle with Sony and settling out of court, in part because so many donated money to his legal battle. Hotz has since made amends by donating leftover legal defense money to the EFF, but many are still furious he didn't fight this thing to the end. Given what might go down with another PS3 modder -- Alexander "graf_chokolo" Egorenkov -- Hotz might have made the right move after all.

The Break Room is now read-only, and a kinder, gentler off-topic forum, The Studio, has taken its place. Come chill around our virtual water cooler. And don't be a dick. (The Studio is only available to registered and logged-in users)

Bill Owen of MNPCTech fame is building us two Star Trek-themed PCs, one of which we will give away at Comic-Con. With design help from Mike Okuda and our own David Gerrold (who will take home the other PC), both Top Men in the Star Trek world, it's going to be amazing. Follow Bill's build log in the forums!

Yesterday we heard the news that internet hacker group Anonymous had begun an attack on Sony in retaliation for their legal threats against PS3 modders. But now things are taking a bit of a dark turn, even for Anonymous. An offshoot of the main OpSony Anon group called SonyRecon has decided that hitting the Sony sites and services with DDoS attacks isn't enough. They've decided to go after Sony employees personally.

Under the heading of "things we wish we had thought of", observe as a clever hacker manages to take over any and all video screens in Times Square with only an iPhone and some video transmission hardware. Any video on the phone can be thrown up on a screen without any wires, overriding the video it is supposed to be playing.

If we've learned anything from the modding community, it's that they don't mess around. Give them a goal and they'll get it done, as is the case with the iPad 2. Apple's second generation tablet went on sale just before the weekend, and it's already been jailbroken, shedding the shackles of iOS 4.3.

The N64 was pretty awesome back in the late 90s when it hooked up to a TV. In the year 2011, we're still impressed by the console, but it's gone through some changes. A modder by the name Hailrazer has created what every 15 year old would have killed for in 1999: a handheld N64 game machine. The name for this magnificent contraption? The N64 Boy Advance.